is there anyway to make your midi sound better?

[stilz]

i realize that midi is something of the past, but i just wanna know if it's possible. i was originally using a soundblaster AWE gold, then i upgraded my system and am now using the epox onboard. i no longer have the soundblaster midi output (don't know what it's called) and had to settle w/ the microsoft something midi output. it's as horrible as it can get, same as a soundcard i bought 7 years ago. is there any software enhancer kinda thing available?
(i know if you use quicktime they'll enhance the midi you are listening online better, but i probably won't upload all my midi online just to listen to them...)

 

[NEVERwinter]

well.... i got this software called "Yamaha Software Synthesizer" it makes the MIDI playback sounds better (which using CPU power)

i got it from my FF7 CD.. so i dont know whether its free or available somewhere else.

 

[vitocorleone]

if MIDI is so important, then you should slap that AWE back in there if you still have it. otherwise, any other "new" sound blaster will do. then you go search the net for general-midi soundfonts that you can load into the sound card's memory. i've found ones up to 128megs in size (rediculous size for games as you need that memory for other things). otherwise, i think yamaha and/or roland sell audio cards with built-in midi sounds that are good. finally, there's the yamaha soft-synth thingy that the other person mentioned.

 

[Goi]

If you want a software based solution, check out the Yamaha SYXG synthesizer. Its pretty good for the job, but uses CPU cycles and there's a slight latency so you probably can't do much recording with it. If you want a hardware based solution, get an add on midi daughterboard from Yamaha. I still have my Yamaha DB-50XG from like eons ago and it still embarrasses newer cards like the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz its riding on. Check if your soundcard has the "waveblaster" header though, some newer cards don't have this and hence lack the capability of supporting an add on daughterboard.

 

[NogginBoink]

You need to realize that MIDI really has very little control over the sound. MIDI says "Play f-sharp in a piano voice starting now."

It's up to the sound card to reproduce a piano-like sound. So the final sound is very dependent on the sound card.